Will beneficiaries acknowledging receipt of inheritance

FabFifty

I know that beneficiaries of a Will need to acknowledge receipt of their inheritance but does this have to be a signed letter or would an email acknowledging receipt be sufficient? Many thanks.

doodling

Hi,

FabFifty said:

I know that beneficiaries of a Will need to acknowledge receipt of their inheritance but does this have to be a signed letter or would an email acknowledging receipt be sufficient? Many thanks.

Beneficiaries of a will don't need to acknowledge receipt of their inheritance although it would be impolite not to do so.

As you are basically asking about etiquette then unfortunately the "right" answer will depend on context and could range from no acknowledgement, all the way through to a full page advert in a national newspaper declaring your unending gratitude.

Practically, the executor probably wants something they can file away in case someone asks them to prove that you got your money so they might appreciate a signed letter.

p00hsticks

Personally when last acting as an executor, I wrote and posted cheques and took the cheques being paid into bank accounts as evidence of receipt (one went missing in the post and I had to chase it up and re-issue).

I had 40+ beneficiaries to deal with and had already come to the conclusion that I couldn't rely on them all to respond to e-mails or acknowledge written requests.

thegreenone

When writing out cheques for my nieces and nephews after Mum died, I created a spreadsheet attributing the cheque numbers to each recipient. The bank statement only showed the cheque number so I gradually ticked off who had cashed and when.  That was enough for me as I knew, from past experience the chances of nieces and nephews acknowledging was Zero.  Love them but useless on that front.